Last days are bittersweet. On the one hand, the vacation is almost over. No more beach. No more ocean air. Laura and her boys will go back to Texas while the rest of us will head to Indiana. But, I also miss my dogs. I miss my bed. I miss having my own room and bathroom instead of sharing with three other people.
We made the most of our day.
Abigail and I went to Beach Bums Coffee and Deli. The selection was not huge, but they do what they do well. I got a white chocolate mocha latte and Abigail got a vanilla bean frappichino. We did not get them, but they had donuts, so we found where they were hiding. The place was a bit of a crapshoot because their business site is lacking. How do you do a website for a restaurant and not include a menu? Luckily, it worked out.
The rest of the day was pretty much bumming around on the beach and coming back to the condo for the occasional snack or meal. There was a morning thunderstorm. The sun came back out, but the wind stayed. Swimming was like swimming in the middle of one of those inflatable bumper car rides. The waves just knocked the snot out of me. Good thing it was a good temp to hangout in the beach chairs even without the umbrella.
That was pretty much the whole day. Various people rotating out to the beach and back. We had weird meals to try and use up our groceries. At one point, Hudson and Ashlind were at the beach and they decided on a game where I held their hands while the waves tossed them around. Each one was pulling me out deeper and with both my hands taken, I was getting all sorts of shots of water up the nose and I was unable to wipe my eyes. It was a brutal game and my misery made them laugh and laugh with glee.
I was very happy when they decided to play in the sand.
Once we finally packed up and headed back. It was a dinner of grilled cheese, mac & cheese, and a few leftover tater tots. The young ones held a lot of sway over our menu for the week. I had hoped to go to a spot down the road where we saw a bunch of food trucks parked. Maybe another time.
The pool is open until 11pm, so around 10pm a few tried getting in a last swim, while others went to catch crabs on the beach, but a pop up storm ended that prematurely.
So ends our time at the Pink Pelican Paradise. Tomorrow we leave early and start the long drive home.
Today was Abigail’s 13th birthday. She wanted to be awake when midnight came, so Amanda and I woke her up to sing .
She has been talking about this day since we decided when this trip would be. fru-fru coffee is Abigail and I’s thing (well, hers is more of the fruity drinks, she just likes the coffee shop mystique.) I was planning on taking her to a local one, but when I came downstairs after showering, her and most of the others had gone to get donuts for everyone.
The kicker is, they came back without donuts. It would appear that donuts are hard to come by in this town. We all settled for leftover blueberry pancakes, sausage, and some eggs were made. Maybe we will have our coffee date tomorrow.
The morning started with a rainstorm, but became sunny and beautiful. Most of us headed to the beach. As Mary says, even Hartford City has a pool, so I am going to the beach! We had an umbrella, some chairs, and a wagon full of boogie boards.
You could tell the weather was improving, because the crowds were growing. Honestly, though, I have been on more crowded ones. I think this is a private beach for the vacation houses and condos, so that helps keeps it from getting too over run. The water is getting clearer, too. With Claudette being a few days in the past now, the sand is starting to settle. We were able to see about 2 or so feet down. It was nice to not have the muddy water to remind me of the reservoir beaches in Indiana.
We boarded for a while and I went in to relax under the umbrella for a bit. Abigail soon followed because she said it felt like something was biting her and it left some bumps that still stung, so she went back to the house. Our best guess is she had a bit of an encounter with a jellyfish.
It was fine and then Miriam put two and two together and realized that jellyfish and sharks live in the Gulf, so she went back because she was spooked. Laura tried to come down with her boys and Ashlind, but Logan decided it was grumpy nap time, so she took him back. Then when she finally made it back, Hudson was tired of the beach and he wanted to head back. He even dug a hole under my chair to lay in to really show how he was done. Mary and I were the consistent beach dwellers. A bit after Laura took Hudson, we did go back for a late lunch.
I went ahead and rinsed off and put on real clothes. I do not like hanging out in a damp bathing suit. The afternoon was a lot of hanging out and relaxing. Eventually, I put on a dry suit and joined Mary and Laura down at the beach again.
At this point, the tide was much lower and we discovered that shallow water is much easier to boogie board in. I thought I needed deeper water, but I was finally having decently long rides with the shallow (we are talking about a foot of water sometimes.) The only disadvantage was scraping my knees on the sand. Ouch.
While we were enjoying the beach life, Amanda and Dad took some of the kids to the souvenir shops that they had been begging for. You had your t-shirt shops, kitschy props to draw in customers like an entrance that was an open shark’s mouth, exotic jerky, ya know, tourist stuff. They came back with a selection of jerky and sour cream and onion flavored crickets. Hudson was not a fan.
It eventually started to rain, so we packed up and heading back. I took my third shower of the day and was ready to just chill when I was informed that we were doing attempt number two and the family pictures. It was cloudy which was better lighting.
Our crew heading down the boardwalk and found a good spot that did not have buildings in the background and that Dad could reach. It was chaos. Kids were being chased all over the dunes, other kids kept making faces, and others are at the stage that when they are asked to smile, it comes out fake.
Mary’s camera is a nice one with a SIM card and no one brought a computer (I’m using an iPad for this), so I don’t know if we got any good ones…
After the formals, we tried to do various smaller group and candid pictures with our phones. The 6yo’s revolted anytime they saw a camera. This picture is what Hudson and Ashlind say are them ninja-ing away.
I did get a few nice ones.
We stayed out until the light got too dim for any more pictures (much to Hudson and Ashland’s relief.)
For dinner, we broke out the grill. Then we sang “Happy Birthday” to Abigail.and had ice cream cake. Yum!
We were relaxing, but the birthday girl wanted to finish our Minute to Win It games. It was around 11pm when we finished and all trickled to our beds.
Well, I did it. I followed through. It is amazing how if I had an alarm clock set for 8am, getting up would have been an impossible struggle. However, since I just said, “if I wake up early, great, if not, no big deal,” and instead I woke up at 6am and was fine.
Since it was 6am and I was up, I grabbed a bucket and headed to the beach to get all the good shells.
And it was a bust. I should have known this, but I did not realize it until I was on the pristine sands: beachcombing is pointless close to high tide. I have an app called “Tides Near Me” that I check and low tide has been in the evening around 7-8pm or so and high tide is around 9am. So what is basically happening is the waves are coming up higher and higher on the shore and carrying things away, not dropping them off. My shell collecting was like a forensic team coming in after the coroner has left and the cleaning crew has done their job.
Instead of finding more of the same, I found less of it.
I kept going though. It was a beautiful morning with the promise of a beautiful day. There were no storms in the forecast for the day and the wind had died down. The flags signaling the beach safety went down to yellow. I walked a bit over a mile east. It was a tough walk. The sand that was getting soaked with water after a day of drying out still had a lot of air in it, so it turned heavy and my feet would sink. It was a lot like walking through four inches of a wet, heavy snow, so I got a workout.
I got back to the PPP (Pink Pelican Paradise) around 7am. Most everyone was up and we were doing leftovers this morning. Days of breakfast leftovers was building up, so not cooking was the responsible thing.
The plan for the morning was a family picture we had been planning. Everyone had been instructed to bring white and light blue beachy clothes for the picture. I freely admit I way overpacked for this trip and outfits for this picture was a big part of the reason why. I chose my outfit and we were all ready. Mary brought her nice camera and a tripod, but it was too sunny! It was going to be tough for Dad to get around on the sand (he uses a cane), so Mary decided to try pictures with just the grandkids first so she could see if it was too bright for sure and to scout out easy places for Dad to get to without buildings in the background.
No luck, so she took a few of the kids and just me. But neither of us really know what we are doing (me as the model and her as the photographer.) It was decided to try again another time for the whole family photo.
After last night, our plan for the day was to eat out for lunch since it is easier to find a table. Almost all of us were nursing various degrees and patches of sunburn and while it was nice to no longer have the whipping winds, the complete lack of a breeze made everyone agree we did not want to swim at the height of the day. However, the beach was like a different place than what we had been experiencing. There were a lot more people, boats were out, and there was para-sailing going on.
Where we are is kind of off the beaten path, so going into the main town was like stepping back into time during Spring Break in college. People and cars everywhere! Man, I did not miss crowds during COVID. We decided on a place called The Hangout. It was huge. Our car had to circle the parking lot a few times for a spot, so when we got in the other car had put in our name and we had a wait of less than 5 minutes.
We had to sit at two separate tables. I am not a seafood person, so I decided to go with a really loaded burger called The Lifeguard. It had bacon, a fried egg, cheese, onion straws, and fried pickles. It seemed like a little much, but I could also add a boozy milkshake for half off called a Buckmaster. It had coconut rum, coffee liqueur, and vanilla ice cream with a chocolate drizzle. Yum!
I left for the bathroom and while I was gone an MC for the restaurant got on the mic and had everyone who had a June birthday get on the table. Hudson was sipping on his milkshake and Mom asked me about my drink. I told her that Hudson had gotten a milkshake, too. Then she hits me with, “but the waiter put it where you were sitting…”
Oh… so I went and tried it and there was distinct taste of coconut. Opps. I was sitting by Laura and she thought the waiter was sitting it by her to give to Hudson. He got a few sips, but could still walk a straight line.
My burger arrived and I had missed in the list of what was on it that it is a double burger. As in two 1/2lb patties. I did not even try. I took one patty off and gave it to the other table and was still bursting.
Garnished with a whistle
While we did not get our beachy family photo, we did get one of all of us in our PPP shirts. A nice gentleman jogged over when he saw us struggling to figure out the timer function. Then us sisters had to get our own picture on one of their many props.
We came back to the condo and all chilled and digested. I devoted some time to my class that turned into a nap.
I woke around 6pm and went with Ruby and Logan to the beach to look for crabs and shells. By this time, the sun was lower in the sky and there was a nice breeze. There was just enough clouds that it would have been the perfect lighting for our family picture. Oh well.
Laura and Ashlind joined us, so Ruby wandered down the beach looking for shells while Logan and Ashlind played in the sand. The moon was rising in the sky in the east and a sunset in the west. It was gorgeous. Mary, Amanda, Abigail, Loralie, and Miriam also joined us. We stayed on the beach past sunset and the girls were in the water until then the sun had gone down, too.
Tomorrow is Abigail’s 13th birthday, so she has been reminding us all day that it is her last day of being 12. Well, then 12 is going out with a bang.
I have officially lost track of the days. We were deciding on dinner plans and I pointed out we should make sure it is open since some restaurants aren’t open on Mondays and everyone turned and told me it is Tuesday.
It stormed last night, but it was bright and sunny most of the day. I was getting my beach on today. We went to the beach armed with boogie boards. I started with Hudson by wading out and holding his hand while he “destroyed the waves” with his kicks!
This kind of beach is hard to predict. In some places, the farther we waded out, the shallower the water got, then you might get a fun drop off. With the tropical storm and its straggling weather systems, the water has been churned up all the time. So we have not been able to see the bottom at all just like the muddy waters of Indiana. I hope it calms down enough so the sand can settle at some point. I would like to see clear, blue waters.
After Hudson tired of kicking waves and I was getting lots of time in my wrestler’s stance, he was ready to play in the sand. I walked up with him and grabbed a boogie board and went out to join Charleston, Mary, Laura, Abigail, and Loralie in the waves.
It was a lot of fun, but I am definitely not a natural. I think I got one good run on the board and that’s about it. I was pretty good at jumping up quickly so that the next wave didn’t take me out. No viral videos of me out there!
I did have one wave break perfectly to go up my nose and most of my sinuses. It was the world’s most intense neti pot.
We went back up to the condo for a late lunch. While I had a lot of fun, I was done for the day, so I took a shower. My hair just felt weird and I wanted it clean. Now as a fun little treat for myself, I dyed my hair teal underneath in the back. This involved lightening the hair (and ruining the good shirt I was wearing) and then the teal is not even permanent. It lasts about 20 washes. I like it, but I won’t be making this a regular thing since it’s so high maintenance. Since I have already washed my hair once, I just went with conditioner. My hair felt so much better and not like a sandy bit of tangled fish nets. I gotta say though, my curls have been on point in the salty sea air.
One of our other planned activities was pedicures. Abigail was my nail artist. She did my big toes in white, the rest in light blue, and I got a gold coral piece and starfish on my big toenails. Since I was done swimming, I took the pedi out for a test drive and walked east on the beach this time. We were planning to leave for dinner at 6:30 and it was 5pm, so I had time for a long walk.
This section of beach was even emptier than going west. There were places that had lots of shells and where you could see how the strong waves took a lot of beach with it during higher tide. I still was pretty much just finding clam halves and pieces of sand dollars, but I did find one mostly intact snail and a piece of coral! I was very excited by that one.
I decided to turn around and walk back around 6pm when I hit a bunch of people fishing from shore. It was not really a good spot for walking in between them and the water.
When we got back, we decided to try a place called Tacky Jacks. All 15 of us piled into 2 cars and headed there.
Some of you may see where this is going.
We arrived and parking was a challenge, then I went up and said table for 15 and they said it would be a 3 hour wait. Now 6:30 was our goal time for dinner, but it was really closer to 8pm when we arrived. We had a grumpy toddler, tired first graders, and slap happy teens/preteens so that was not happening. Laura called a few other places and they all had 3 hour waits, too. We decided to get pizza from a local place called Crico’s Pizza & Subs. It was good and we decided that next time we try for the less busy lunch time. Having a big family is great, except when it comes to getting seated at restaurants.
All the swimming in rough waters and walking is really getting to everyone, so a lot of us turned in before 10pm.
I will be too soon. I want to beach comb tomorrow or it might be the end of the week if I am not to careful.
We finally saw the sun for a good portion of the day!
It started out cloudy and they had a red flag out and that means its high surf and/or currents, but you can still swim. It was very windy, so we tried out the pool. By this time the sun was out, so it was too hot to stay in the lounge chairs, so I dipped into the pool. Whoa, it was slightly chillier than I enjoy, so I decided to take a walk on the beach.
It was a great walk. The conditions made the beach not overly crowded, but I still got sunshine! I walked west along the beach and the crowd gets even sparser. I do not know if it is just coincidence because of the weather the last few days or the normal state of things, but I do not see paths to that section from the homes, so I am assuming most people don’t want to schlep their stuff down the beach that far so they just stay crowded close to the boardwalk.
I found a few shells and the occasional sand dollar fragment. My plan is to get up early enough to beach comb at least one morning. I have been waking up early enough, just not getting out early enough. My internal clock is still on Eastern Beagle Breakfast time.
It wouldn’t be me if I did not have a sunburn on vacation, so no surprise that I did not hit the back of my one arm well enough with the sunscreen. Luckily, it’s not a bad burn, more of a token one to keep the tradition alive.
We all came back to the condo for the early afternoon and had a light lunch and several naps were had. Some on purpose, others not. I did some light reading for my class about some of the horrible things that can go wrong in pregnancy and during birth, so that was a fun beach read.
Mary decided she was ready for the beach, so a bunch of the rest went with her to brave the surf. I was still reading, so I did not go until I finished. I made the incorrect assumption that they would not have much more swim left in them, so it was pointless to put on my suit. I was just planning to enjoy the sand and sound of the waves for the time they had left at the beach. Turns out, they had staked out a sandbar and had a boogie board and were taking turns hitting the big waves. When I arrived, Mary left and went back to the condo and came back with a wagon full of boards. Now they all had their own board and were having the time of their lives. It looked like a lot of fun, but once again I underestimated how much longer they would be swimming. It looked like a lot of fun, so I won’t make that mistake again!
We ate dinner in again and could hear thunder in the distance. Kathy has been the MC for our trip and she had a slate of Minute to Win It games planned. We divided into two teams and everyone went head to head against a person on the other team. We did five rounds tonight. So far my team is down, but one of the challenges involved using chopsticks and since I spent some time in Japan, I destroyed!
We decided to save the rest of the games for another night and we naturally started sharing three generations worth of stories. Dad would tell ones from his childhood, my sisters and I would from ours, and then the kids would tell their own. We all heard new things and past orneriness were confessed to since it was past the statue of limitations.
Laura is the best storyteller. She told a story that got me laughing so hard, I almost peed my pants! I went to the bathroom, came back, and she launched into another story that if I hadn’t just been to the bathroom, I may have peed my pants for that one.
The day was a mixed bag of weather. Sometimes it was sunny. Sometimes raining. Mostly it was cloudy. The Gulf was rough and the waves were big, so I had no plans to swim. Some of us walked down to the beach early-ish in the morning, you might say vacation early. We wanted to get some enjoyment out of the beach before the rain started.
First off, it was much closer than we thought, but we can clearly see the beach past the other condos in this addition. They have a boardwalk that looks brand new down to the beach. The sand is white and soft. I immediately had to lose the shoes as soon as we got to it. It was the type of sand that your feet demand to feel.
There were a lot of whitecaps and I am a terrible judge of how close I can be to the water, so it did not take long before I had a big splash of water (and sand) up my shorts. On the bright side, the Gulf has warm waters. Not bathtub warm, but not cool enough were people lie and tell you “you’ll get used to it” when you are in for a bit.
I have never outgrown the “collector” phase. I had to pick up shells even though I have a million at home in better shape. I just see potential in little things like that, so I have to save them. At least these don’t weigh as much as the geode collecting from last Fall and there was no hill to take them up.
The final part of our crew arrived around 1pm. They left at 6am because the hotel they found was sketchy. The room was not clean, a smashed bug was found in the sheets, and the room smelled like pee. They were very glad to have arrived and we were glad they survived their ordeal.
The day went incredibly quickly. I had to waste… I mean, devote a big portion of the day to an online class I am taking this summer to get ready to renew my teaching license. It was just not something I was able to get to as I was preparing for this trip and doing my summer job, so it had to be done today to meet the Monday deadline. Unfortunately for me, the next round of assignments are due the day before we get back so I will have to work on it this week too so that I don’t need to as we are making the long drive home. Reading in a car makes me nauseated, so there is no saving it as a time killer for the long ride.
2 red flags mean no swimming
We stuck to our home base all day. No cars to eat out or see the sights. If it was not in our immediate vicinity, we did not do it. As night came, Amanda and her three kids, Mary and her two oldest, Laura, and I decided to go on a night walk to enjoy the beach and see some crabs. We are not talking crabs you would eat, these were closer to the size of a dime or quarter with legs.
We were not the only ones and there were other more prepared groups with nets and buckets. There were squeals of surprise coming from all over as a crab would be spotted and it would run with amazing speed.
Abigail eventually worked up the bravery to scoop one up in her hands. It was pretty cool, but still hard not to react when they come speeding towards your feet! We did that for awhile and then I took a seat on a rental chair still out for the night and just enjoyed listening to the waves and looking at the moon over the water. If only Indiana had an ocean.
I started to head back, but met Mary and Laura coming back from the condo with Ashlind and Hudson so that they could see the crabs, too. I had to see this reaction, so I went back to the beach with them. We quickly found some and it was all very exiting and cool, but one was enough to satisfy Hudson, so he said, “Ok, that’s enough. Let’s head back.”
So we started to head back and stirred up another one that we saw bury itself. I used Abigail’s technique and scooped my hands under where he buried himself. I started to brush sand off the top until I uncovered him for the kids to see closer. As soon as I got him unburied, he jumped out of my hand and made a run for it. More squeals from them and we headed back for the night.
Even though a large chunk was devoted to homework, it was still a good day that I am pretty sure was only 9 hours because it went way too fast to have been all 24.
It wasn’t the best night’s sleep I had ever had. Apparently our hotel had went with the extra extra firm mattress. I’ve slept in tents with just a sleeping bag between me and the hard-packed ground beneath that had more give. So, I got up around 6:30am. Figured I have first crack at the waffle maker, anyway!
At first it seemed like my strategy had worked, but as soon as I poured the batter a mom and her two boys came down. Loads of counter space and all three of them were on top of me. I loved social distancing. I work with blind and visually-impaired kids and personal space is generally not their strength, so I prefer loads of personal space out in the real world. These people seemed to be doing some sort of anti-social distancing. I had to move my plate to the other side of the waffle maker, because the younger boy only had to nod and he could lick my plate. They didn’t take the hint. Once my waffle was done, I sat and Dad came down. We saw on the news that the next county from our home made national news for tornadoes.
That took care of food, but I needed coffee and this was a great opportunity to find a local spot. I had to take my protege with me. I tease Abigail that she is bougie, because (compared to my siblings) I can be a bit bougie, too. I put “cafe” in Yelp and it recommended the Lovely Brew Cafe. Unfortunately, it was 7:30am and they didn’t open until 8am. A coffee shop that doesn’t open until 8? Things are slower in the South.
I remembered seeing a crowded breakfast place down the road and Abigail remembered different breakfast spot near the Mexican restaurant from the night before, so we borrowed Dad’s truck and put the Lovely Brew in the GPS. On the way, we passed the place I had seen and it wasn’t open yet either! So we went on and Abigail spotted the place she saw called the I Don’t Know Cafe. We parked and went in. It was open and crowded which is a good sign for a local place. We got in and it was very low key. Monterey is one of those small towns that as an outsider I can’t tell if they are a town that is dying or revitalizing. It is for sure a town for the Dale Hollow tourists, but the ones that seem to rely on the tourist trade are very unpretentious and no frills.
The I Don’t Know Cafe was a great example of this. The interior had mismatched furniture that looked like they’d found them in their friend’s backyards; not the quirky style of mismatching that is done as a choice. The counter was obviously a slapped together contraption made from a sheet of plywood and painted with whatever was on sale. The place only had a regular Mr. Coffee home coffeemaker, so this was not the fancy coffee destination we were craving. I asked the lady if she could tell us somewhere with flavored coffee and she recommended The Lovely Brew Cafe. Lovely Brew appeared to be destined.
She told us it was only a block away, so we walked it and they still weren’t open, but there was plenty of parking, so we walked back to get the truck. We got back up there and only had to wait five more minutes. The cafe was attached to a boutique. I am generally not a boutique shopper. My general experience is they don’t carry my size, they are wildly overpriced, and they often pick pieces that go one detail too far. For example a perfectly cute top will have random rhinestones that take it from classy to trashy. We went to order our drinks and the flavor list was three columns long and it included my all time favorite: butterscotch! No one ever has butterscotch! They even had my second hard to find flavor: lavender. But it was no contest, I had to get a butterscotch latte.
As we waited, we wandered over to the boutique. One of the mannequins had on a pretty peasant top made of white eyelet lace. I thought it was very pretty and tasteful. Not a rhinestone, sequin, or random zipper to be found. I went over to the rack and was shocked, SHOCKED to find it in 2XL. That is larger than what I wear! So I kept looking and found my size and it was only $28. Cute, affordable, and in my size. It was a vacation miracle!
The plan for the day because of Tropical Storm Claudette was to hangout with Nick and Lanette until around 4pm and then head to Gulf Shores with the worst of the storm over. They weren’t coming to the hotel until 10am. We had plenty of time for all of us to get showers and breakfast. Mary and Ruby had their own time to do some light shopping. They found the Lovely Boutique too and Mary almost bought the same top I did. When Nick and Lanette arrived, we decided to check out the Farmer’s Market. This was not a Monterey highlight. There was not much food stands and the rest were more like anemic yard sales.
We finished with that quickly and it was too early to eat, so we decided to check out Nick and Lanette’s homestead. They are doing the off the grid thing. They had bought some uncleared land in the middle of no where (no cell service at all) where they plan to build an ultra-eco friendly house called an earth bag house. Basically, you fill sand bags with dirt and lime and build them up in a circle before adding rebar to reinforce it and a roof. I call it a dirt igloo because that’s what it sounds like to me.
Until they build, they have small garden, a flock of guinea hens whose main job is to eat ticks, and they are living in an army surplus tent that has a wood burning stove inside. Their property has a little pond, too and they a creek that they suspect is spring fed. The scary part is a local meth head who is a dealer, burglar, and mysteriously has people in his crew die in unusual ways while he’s around was their unofficial neighbor for awhile. He was squatting (ie hiding out) in a cabin down the gravel road from them. Fortunately, he had finally been arrested and kept in jail long enough for the cabin to be sold and occupied so it wasn’t an easy target for being empty.
We were all ready for lunch, so we headed to a general store ran by Mennonites. We got sandwiches at the deli counter and ate outside under a pavilion by a pond. It was delicious, but I realize now that I don’t remember the name, so no free advertising today. As we were finishing up, Tropical Storm Claudette came to us and it started a cloudburst. We used to opportunity for some family pictures and once the rain had slowed down to a sprinkle, we headed toward another Mennonite store and Leather Shop.
Yesterday, I humble bragged a little about my quarantine crafting successes. Today, it is more about my unrealized ambitions. I plan to learn how to make leather earrings on the Cricut, but so far all I have managed to do is collect lots of leather. Today was no different and I chose once again to add to my already unmanageable leather collection. They shop had one of those big wheeled carts that custodians use to gather trash bags to take out to a dumpster full of leather scraps. I dug through it and found six pieces I liked and then also bought some leather strings that were pretty colors, too. Hopefully I will do more than just look at them on my shelf at home.
I went over to the general store more to use their restroom than to shop, but I found a bag of mini buckeyes (peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate) so I had to get those.
Bulk Cheeto dust, anyone?
We all talked and hugged and finally said our goodbyes at around 3:30. We were probably going to get to the condo at midnight as it was. I was once again in the fast vehicle. Mary and I like to just push through with few stops. She ended up driving the whole way, which was fine with me with all the spontaneous downpours that led to decreased visibility. None of them reached the level of what we saw in Indiana, but it was gnarly.
As we traveled, Mary got increasingly frustrated as we were making great time, but her GPS kept moving our arrival time back. About forty miles away, we saw the warning that there was a slowdown due to an accident that closed both sides of the interstate. Our rerouted exit was a few miles from the accident, so we thought we were fine, but it turned out to be everyone’s exit and we now knew why our arrival time kept moving. It was standstill traffic for the last two miles and once we got off, we took a bathroom break, and filled up a dangerously low gas tank.
We got on our detour route and it was a curvy highway in the dark, but nothing spectacularly scary or dangerous which made the person in front of us going 25mph in a 55mph zone all the more maddening! There were just enough curves to make finding a passing zone difficult, along with his tendency to hug the middle line and occasional use his turn signal on curves. I mean the road has a curve to the right, he turned on his right turn signal. It was dark, but still pretty early for a drunk driver to be on the road so I’m really not sure what his issue was. We finally got the opportunity to pass at about the halfway point of the detour. After that, our arrival time worked its way back down from a high of 1:15 to 12:30am.
Dad’s truck with Amanda and Charleston got to the accident late enough that a lane was open instead of everyone being detoured off the interstate and they saw a semi trailer brunt to the ground, at least 10 other cars also involved, and damage to a bridge. The accident had happened about 5-6 hours before we reached it and it was still that bad. The rainy weather had slowed down Mom, Kathy, Abigail, and Miriam’s car enough that decided to stop for the night in Birmingham, AL which is about 5 1/2 hours away.
Travel went smoothly the rest of the way, although we though we might be closer than what we were when we got on the Gulf Shores Parkway and it was still two hours and the whole way was lined with shops. Our biggest problem was when we turned in to the addition and we went right instead of left, so we had to back track, but once we arrived it was 12:30am and Laura and Hudson were waiting for us on the screened in porch. There were hugs and happy dances all around!
The Pink Pelican Paradise is huge and the beach is closer than I though! My plan had been to sleep in the screened in porch because I love the sound of the waves and ocean breeze, but what we couldn’t tell from the pictures is the screened in porch has stairs right beside it leading to the street and the screen door was in tatters, so not safe and secure from people like I had thought, so I got a bed with Mary on the third floor instead.
We stayed up for Dad’s car load and once we had everything inside, had all the beds assigned, and food put away we finally made it to bed at 2:30am, so that is why this entry is so late, but the day was so worth it.
This trip has been in the works for a long time. This was to be our first real foray in a looooong time. So many trips cancelled because of the pandemic.
It all started because one of my cousins bought a vacation condo in Gulf Shores, Alabama. It was the rare place that could support our large family. We even managed o find a time that worked for everyone. The condo is named Pink Pelican Paradise and it is a block from the beach and we were all ready for a beach vacation. Heck, this will also be my first time in Alabama. This is getting me close to having all the States checked off my list.
One of the ways I had been filling my free time during the pandemic was by starting an Etsy shop called WanderlustfulArts. It started out mainly as knitted hats because that is what I did during lockdown instead of sour dough starters. I then added facemasks, braille on facemasks, and now my main niche is braille t-shirts. My skills on the Cricket cutting machine got me “volunteered” to make a family t-shirt for the trip.
Sixteen shirts later it was finally ready to go. We took three vehicles and the plan for today was to detour to visit my brother Nick and his wife Lanette in Tennessee. I woke up an hour early to the sound of Lester puking up what turned out to be a crackers wrapper. It was an auspicious start to the trip. It was doubly worrisome, because we found out that a tropical storm with the possibility of getting upgraded to getting a name was hitting our destination.
We got an almost on time start. As we approached Indianapolis, the downpour started. There was some genuinely scary driving. There were times the visibility was zero. It was a long twenty miles. Skies cleared and I was in the fast, no stops car. We had a leisurely lunch in Elizabethtown, KY.
The last part of Kentucky, we left the interstate and did rural highways most of the way. We went up, down, and around the mountains and scenic hills into Tennessee. We even saw a farm that raised zebras!
We reached Monterey, Tennessee. It is a small town with boutiques supported by the tourists there for Dale Hollow. Nick and Lanette found us at our hotel and we headed to a park to talk while the kids burned some energy.
Once everyone was good and hungry, we headed to a local Mexican restaurant called Los Agave. It looked packed, but they were able to seat all 14 of us right away. I had a great fajita quesadilla. Abigail will be 13 years old on Thursday and her and Loralie were quite smitten with a couple of the waiters. Abigail asked Ruby to tell them it was her birthday because she wanted to be serenaded by the cuties. Ruby resisted, but she told our waitress. I thought she would forget because there were so many of us.
Then I saw the waitress grab a sombrero and go into the kitchen. It was on!
All the wait staff came out and placed the sombrero on Abigail’s head and started singing as a fried ice cream was put in from of her. One of the waiters fed her a spoonful of whipped cream, which was a little weird and then he went to wipe the extra from her mouth when one of cuties pushed what turned out to be a napkin full of whipped cream in her face!
None of us saw that coming and Abigail took it like a champ so we all had a good laugh and she got to try her first fried ice cream.
We talked a bit longer and made plans for tomorrow with Nick and Lanette. We were considering delaying heading to Gulf Shores until we could check on the current weather situation. We got back to the hotel and had a discussion. Right now the current plan is to hang out with Nick and Lanette until 2-4pm and then get to Gulf Shores late that night. Laura and her two boys, Hudson (6yo) and Logan (2yo) will also be arriving earlier in the day.
Here’s hoping for clear skies and NOT experiencing out first hurricane this week.
Travels with Freckles 